After working overtime at her corporate job, Y/N goes to the gym at 2 am and runs into a man named Choso, who just moved into town with his brother Yuji.
Y/N X Choso - Slow Burn... for now. ;)
Story Cover by @ryucloudx on Twitter
I will try to p...
The automated lights turn off for the third time in your barren corporate office building. The blue light from your bright computer screen is the only thing illuminating the area around you. You sigh and wave your hands wildly to try and trigger the lights back on but to no avail.
Ten more minutes. A few more clicks. Then you can leave. You blink every few seconds to keep your eyes from drying out.
Your manager insisted the new ads be live and directed towards the corporate landing page first thing tomorrow morning. So, as the corporate drone you are, you stayed overtime to get them up and running.
You work in digital marketing for a multi-billion dollar company. You graduated from college two years ago and luckily landed a job very quickly. You've worked very hard for the company ever since and because of that, you also find yourself in situations like this now and again.
The clock ticked 1:25 am.
A few more clicks.
Finally, once you were done, you let out an exasperated sigh. But very quickly, the next emotional wave that comes over you is anger. Who the hell does your manager think he is asking for this request last minute?! Bastard. You'd think that with all of his "experience," he would have the foresight to plan and account for the reduced scope as it seems this situation happens more often than not. But of course not. Not for you at least.
Nevertheless. You are worked up. You grab your bag and log off your computer. Sleep wouldn't come easy at this point. And bad habits like drinking never really suited you well. So, you decided to work off some steam by going to the nearby gym.
You walk into the gym by 2 am. You have never been here this late, and seeing it this empty feels quite odd. Only one employee and a few patrons are there.
You head over to the Smith machine. It's been a while since you've used it but you decide to start with a few sets of inclined bench presses. You start simple, with some light weights. As you start your reps, you get lost in thought, thinking of work, and all the pent-up stress you have accumulated over the past few weeks. It felt good like each rep was taking a bit of stress away with it, into the ether.
You don't even notice another gym patron start using the other Smith machine next to you.
You cool down for a minute and decide to add more weight. The frustration with work has you riled up. You add a substantial amount to the bar.
You started lifting, exhaling as you pushed upward. You remember earlier today when all your colleagues left around 5 pm to go home and cook for their families. You remember your manager walking up to you as you were about to leave. He looked concerned. Desperate.
The request he asked of you seemed preposterous. And even more so when he said he had an "urgent" matter to attend to at home. Leaving you in the barren corporate office that was busy with employees only 20 minutes ago. You were simply and utterly used.
You didn't notice that your breathing had become unsteady. The weight on the bar was starting to send a pang down your arms. A few more reps and all the stress will be wisped away. So you thought.
But your body did not comply. Your arms gave out. And with it, the bar came barreling down. You let out a cry as you were barely able to stop the bar from crushing your collarbone. You were stuck there, bar against your chest, arms trembling. You don't think you could hold it much longer. Not high enough to put it back on the rack.
Before you gain a moment to figure out how to handle your situation, you hear an:
"oh shit!"
And out of your peripheral, you see someone sprinting towards you.
He was now leaning over you, raising the bar that trapped you moments ago. Your eyes locked with his. Dark brown eyes. And a face tattoo?
"Are you okay?"
His words brought you back to reality.
"Uh - oh. Yeah. Thanks..."
"Choso" He replied.
He was standing in front of you now as he had already put the bar back onto the rack. You noticed his hair was tied up into two messy buns
"Y/N" You replied, pretty embarrassed about the whole situation. And what made matters worse, he continued.
"Do you need someone to spot you?" He suggested nonchalantly.
"Oh- uh, n- no thank you. I'm just about done with this machine anyway."
You replied, getting up from your position. You couldn't look him directly in the eyes. He was attractive, yes. But there's no way what you just did had any attractive qualities tied to it. So you decided to move on to the elliptical. As you started walking away he said: "Well, if you need anything, just let me know." You nodded and walked away.
↞↞↠↠
About an hour later, you had finished your workout routine and decided to make use of the gym's showers. The clock on your phone showed 3:25 a.m. You peered down at it as you walked out of the female's locker room. As you did, in tandem, someone also walked out of the male's locker room. It was Choso. His hair was down now and it had a slight dampness to it. He had also changed his clothes. You couldn't help but admire his physical appearance.
"Choso." Your mouth spoke on its own. His name sounded odd coming out of your mouth.
"Hmm? Oh. Hey." He spoke.
"I- Uh" Oh god. What were you going to say? You acknowledged him without thinking. But what was there really to talk about? Ah!
"Hey, I wanted to thank you for helping me out back there. There's this 24-hour cafe next door, do you mind if I grab you a drink?"
Good lord, what were you doing? He looked down at his watch to examine the time. Then he shrugged.
"Sure." He said nonchalantly.
Great. This guy definitely isn't interested. His lack of emotion is a telltale sign. You let out a small sigh and smile at the odd situation you've gotten yourself into as you lead Choso to the cafe next door.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
(**Authors note** I will credit the authors to the images if I can find them! <3 The first image is what I imagined Choso wearing during his gym routine and the second is what he was wearing afterward with his hair down 🥵Hope yall enjoyed it! There's a lot to come!**)
